Category Archives: Military History

The Capital Area Chief Petty Officers Association will conduct a ceremony aboard the USS SLATER on Thursday, October 13 beginning at 9 am to celebrate the Navy’s Birthday. To mark this occasion, the Association is honoring USS SLATER volunteer Alan Fox as their Volunteer of the Year.

The Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on October 13, 1775, by authorizing the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. Continue reading →

The Fort Plain Museum has announced the return of its popular Fall Lecture Series. On Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 7 pm at the museum located at 389 Canal Street in Fort Plain, the museum presents “War on the Middleline – The Founding of a Community in the Kayaderossras Patent in the Midst of the American Revolution” by James Richmond. This is the first of four lectures that will take place at the museum.

James will focus on the Revolutionary War in Saratoga County and the surrounding area beyond the 1777 Battles at Saratoga. Continue reading →

The Puerto Rico based U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard units are American fighting forces with limited U.S. citizenship rights and other social characteristics that set them apart from their counterparts in the U.S. mainland. Accordingly, they are, de facto, America’s Foreign Legionnaires.

The Lower Manhattan Historical Society as announced the third annual commemoration of the American Revolutionary War victories at the battles of Saratoga and Yorktown, at the Trinity Churchyard, 79 Broadway (at Wall Street), in the City of New York.

The ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 15, 2016, from 2:30 to 3:30 pm, two days before the 239th anniversary of the surrender by British General Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne of his 10,000 man force to American General Horatio Gates, the commanding general at the Battle of Saratoga, on October 17, 1777. Continue reading →

The Almanzo Wilder Homestead’s annual Harvest Festival and Civil War Living History Encampment will take place on September 24th at the farm in Burke, NY.

Saturday’s festivities will include pumpkin painting, 19th century games and scarecrow stuffing for children, and a variety of craft and farm market vendors. There will be on-site demonstrations of spinning, shingle making, blacksmithing, and others. Children are invited to participate in the scavenger hunt in the barns. The Wilder buildings will all be open from 10 am to 4 pm for self-guided tours. Continue reading →

This week on “The Historians” podcast, Bob Cudmore relates how his grandmother, Margaret Cook, boarded soldiers who were guarding the New York Barge Canal lock in Randall during World War I. He also has the story of German native Bill Fennhahn who became an American war hero in World War II. Listen to the podcast here. Continue reading →

Fort Ticonderoga hosts the Thirteenth Annual Seminar on the American Revolution September 23-25, 2016. This weekend seminar focuses on the military, political, and social history of the American Revolution. The Seminar takes place in the Mars Education Center and is open to the public; pre-registration is required. Continue reading →

On Sunday, September 18, 2016 historian Geoff Benton will present a program exploring the grounds of Clermont State Historic Site, not as the idyllic playground of the wealthy Livingston family, but as a high water mark of the British invasion of the Hudson River Valley during the American Revolution. Continue reading →

A new exhibit, Powder Horns: An Early American Art Form, features seven powder horns from the Historic Huguenot Street Permanent Collection dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Both owner and professionally-made examples of scrimshaw are featured, as well as horns with provenance to descendants of Huguenot Street patentees. Continue reading →